51. Guitar strings often go "dead"—become less responsive and bright
in tone—after a few weeks of intense use.
A researcher whose son is a classical guitarist hypothesized that dirt
and oil, rather than changes in the
material properties of the string, were responsible.
Which of the following investigations is most likely to yield
significant information that would help to evaluate
the researcher's hypothesis?
(A) Determining if a metal alloy is used to make the strings used by
classical guitarists
(B) Determining whether classical guitarists make their strings go
dead faster than do folk guitarists
(C) Determining whether identical lengths of string, of the same
gauge, go dead at different rates when strung
on various brands of guitars.
(D) Determining whether a dead string and a new string produce
different qualities of sound
(E) Determining whether smearing various substances on new guitar
strings causes them to go dead
52. Most consumers do not get much use out of the sports equipment
they purchase. For example, seventeen
percent of the adults in the United States own jogging shoes, but only
forty-five percent of the owners jog more
than once a year, and only seventeen percent jog more than once a week.
Which of the following, if true, casts most doubt on the claim that
most consumers get little use out of the
sports equipment they purchase?
(A) Joggers are most susceptible to sports injuries during the first
six months in which they jog.
(B) Joggers often exaggerate the frequency with which they jog in
surveys designed to elicit such information.
(C) Many consumers purchase jogging shoes for use in activities other
than jogging.
(D) Consumers who take up jogging often purchase an athletic shoe that
can be used in other sports.
(E) Joggers who jog more than once a week are often active
participants in other sports as well.
53. Two decades after the Emerald River Dam was built, none of the
eight fish species native to the Emerald
River was still reproducing adequately in the river below the dam.
Since the dam reduced the annual range of
water temperature in the river below the dam from 50 degrees to 6
degrees, scientists have hypothesized that
sharply rising water temperatures must be involved in signaling the
native species to begin the reproductive
cycle.
Which of the following statements, if true, would most strengthen the
scientists' hypothesis?
(A) The native fish species were still able to reproduce only in side
streams of the river below the dam where the
annual temperature range remains approximately 50 degrees.
(B) Before the dam was built, the Emerald River annually overflowed
its banks, creating backwaters that were
critical breeding areas for the native species of fish.
(C) The lowest recorded temperature of the Emerald River before the
dam was built was 34 degrees, whereas
the lowest recorded temperature of the river after the dam was built
has been 43 degrees.
(D)Nonnative species of fish, introduced into the Emerald River after
the dam was built, have begun competing
with the declining native fish species for food and space.
(E) Five of the fish species native to the Emerald River are not
native to any other river in North America.
54. It is true that it is against international law to sell plutonium
to countries that do not yet have nuclear weapons.
But if United States companies do not do so, companies in other countries will.
Which of the following is most like the argument above in its logical structure?
(A) It is true that it is against the police department's policy to
negotiate with kidnappers. But if the police want
to prevent loss of life, they must negotiate in some cases.
(B) it is true that it is illegal to refuse to register for military
service. But there is a long tradition in the United
States of conscientious objection to serving in the armed forces.
(C) It is true that it is illegal for a government official to
participate in a transaction in which there is an apparent
conflict of interest. But if the facts are examined carefully, it will
clearly be seen that there was no actual conflict
of interest in the defendant's case.
(D) It is true that it is against the law to burglarize people's
homes. But someone else certainly would have
burglarized that house if the defendant had not done so first.
(E) It is true that company policy forbids supervisors to fire
employees without two written warnings. But there
have been many supervisors who have disobeyed this policy.
55. In recent years many cabinetmakers have been winning acclaim as
artists. But since furniture must be useful,
cabinetmakers must exercise their craft with an eye to the practical
utility of their product. For this reason,
cabinetmaking is not art.
Which of the following is an assumption that supports drawing the
conclusion above from the reason given for
that conclusion?
(A) Some furniture is made to be placed in museums, where it will not
be used by anyone.
(B) Some cabinetmakers are more concerned than others with the
practical utility of the products they
produce.
(C) Cabinetmakers should be more concerned with the practical utility
of their products than they currently are.
(D) An object is not an art object if its maker pays attention to the
object's practical utility.
(E) Artists are not concerned with the monetary value of their products.
56. Although custom prosthetic bone replacements produced through a
new computer-aided design process will
cost more than twice as much as ordinary replacements, custom
replacements should still be cost-effective.
Not only will surgery and recovery time be reduced, but custom
replacements should last longer, thereby
reducing the need for further hospital stays.
Which of the following must be studied in order to evaluate the
argument presented above?
(A) The amount of time a patient spends in surgery versus the amount
of time spent recovering from surgery
(B) The amount by which the cost of producing custom replacements has
declined with the introduction of the
new technique for producing them
(C)The degree to which the use of custom replacements is likely to
reduce the need for repeat surgery when
compared with the use of ordinary replacements
(D) The degree to which custom replacements produced with the new
technique are more carefully
manufactured than are ordinary replacements
(E) The amount by which custom replacements produced with the new
technique will drop in cost as the
production procedures become standardized and applicable on a larger scale
57. Extinction is a process that can depend on a variety of
ecological, geographical, and physiological variables.
These variables affect different species of organisms in different
ways, and should, therefore, yield a random
pattern of extinctions. However, the fossil record shows that
extinction occurs in a surprisingly definite pattern,
with many species vanishing at the same time.
Which of the following, if true, forms the best basis for at least a
partial explanation of the patterned extinctions
revealed by the fossil record?
(A) Major episodes of extinction can result from widespread
environmental disturbances that affect numerous
different species.
(B) Certain extinction episodes selectively affect organisms with
particular sets of characteristics unique to
their species.
(C) Some species become extinct because of accumulated gradual changes
in their local environments.
(D) In geologically recent times, for which there is no fossil record,
human intervention has changed the
pattern of extinctions.
(E) Species that are widely dispersed are the least likely to become extinct.
58. Neither a rising standard of living nor balanced trade, by itself,
establishes a country's ability to compete in
the international marketplace. Both are required simultaneously since
standards of living can rise because of
growing trade deficits and trade can be balanced by means of a decline
in a country's standard of living.
If the facts stated in the passage above are true, a proper test of a
country's ability to be competitive is its
ability to
(A) balance its trade while its standard of living rises
(B) balance its trade while its standard of living falls
(C) increase trade deficits while its standard of living rises
(D) decrease trade deficits while its standard of living falls
(E) keep its standard of living constant while trade deficits rise.
59.Certain messenger molecules fight damage to the lungs from noxious
air by telling the muscle cells encircling
the lungs' airways to contract. This partially seals off the lungs. An
asthma attack occurs when the
messenger molecules are activated unnecessarily, in response to
harmless things like pollen or household
dust.
Which of the following, if true, points to the most serious flaw of a
plan to develop a medication that would
prevent asthma attacks by blocking receipt of any messages sent by the
messenger molecules referred to
above?
(A) Researchers do not yet know how the body produces the messenger
molecules that trigger asthma
attacks.
(B) Researchers do not yet know what makes one person's messenger
molecules more easily activated than
another's.
(C) Such a medication would not become available for several years,
because of long lead times in both
development and manufacture.
(D) Such a medication would be unable to distinguish between messages
triggered by pollen and household
dust and messages triggered by noxious air.
(E) Such a medication would be a preventative only and would be unable
to alleviate an asthma attack once
it had started.
60. Since the routine use of antibiotics can give rise to resistant
bacteria capable of surviving antibiotic
environments, the presence of resistant bacteria in people could be
due to the human use of prescription
antibiotics. Some scientists, however, believe that most resistant
bacteria in people derive from human
consumption of bacterially infected meat.
Which of the following statements, if true, would most significantly
strengthen the hypothesis of the
scientists?
(A) Antibiotics are routinely included in livestock feed so that
livestock producers can increase the rate of
growth of their animals.
(B) Most people who develop food poisoning from bacterially infected
meat are treated with prescription
antibiotics.
(C) The incidence of resistant bacteria in people has tended to be
much higher in urban areas than in rural
areas where meat is of comparable quality.
(D) People who have never taken prescription antibiotics are those
least likely to develop resistant bacteria.
(E) Livestock producers claim that resistant bacteria in animals
cannot be transmitted to people through
infected meat.
**************************************
51.
The hypothesis has two parts: first, that intense use does not bring
material changes that cause the string to go
dead and, second, that dirt and oil do cause the phenomenon. The
experiment suggested in choice E directly
tests this hypothesis by contaminating strings that are known to have
their original material properties. Thus, E is
best answer.
Because factors associated with style of play (choice B) and brand of
guitar (Choice C) might affect how the
strings become contaminated, no result of the investigations in B and
C will allow clear evaluation of the
hypothesis. Information about the strings' material (choice A) will
need considerable supplementation before its
bearing on the hypothesis is clear. The passage already gives the
information promised by investigation D.
52.
The claim that most consumers do not get much use out of the sports
equipment they purchase is supported by
the infrequency with which jogging shoes are used for jogging. This
reasoning overlooks the possibility that
jogging shoes are used for other purposes; thus, choice C is the best answer.
Because injured joggers are less likely to use their jogging shoes,
choice A is inappropriate. If B is true, joggers
use their jogging shoes even less than the study cited states. So
choice B is inappropriate. Because the
consumers and joggers mentioned in D and E respectively are most
likely to be among those who frequently use
sports equipment and whose existence the argument concedes, D and E
are inappropriate.
53.
For the hypothesis to be tenable it is important that the fish in
streams in the Emerald River area that retain a
wide temperature difference have not lost their ability to reproduce.
Choice A asserts that these fish could still
reproduce and is thus the best answer.
Choice B undermines the hypothesis by suggesting a completely
different hypothesis; choice C tends to support
the claim that the temperature variation has lessened but does not
show that this is the right explanation; since
D relates a development after the native species began to decline, it
does not bear on the hypothesis, which
concerns the decline's original cause; and choice E emphasizes the
seriousness of the problem but sheds no
light on what causes it.
54.
The argument in the passage acknowledges that a certain action
contravenes a law, but it presents an excuse
for the action by presupposing that someone will inevitably break this
law. Only choice D shares all these
features, and is thus the best answer In Choice A, an excuse is
presented for contravening a stated policy. However, unlike in the
passage and choice
D, there is no presupposition that the policy will inevitably be
contravened. Similarly, choices B and E report that
illegal activities have occurred, without presupposing that they
inevitably will. Choice C describes a case as
being one to which the law that is stated is inapplicable.
55.
The argument concludes that cabinetmaking is not an art because
cabinetmakers must consider the practical
utility of their products. If it is true that an object is not a work
of art if its maker pays attention to the object's
practical utility, as choice D says, the conclusion is supported.
Thus, choice D is the best answer.
The argument is concerned with whether or not the cabinetmakers must
take the practical utility of their products
into consideration, not with either their monetary value (choice E) or
what actually happens to them (choice A).
The argument is not concerned with precise degree to which individual
cabinetmakers take the practical utility of
cabinets into consideration. Thus, neither B nor C is appropriate.
56.
Although costly to produce, custom bone replacements are tentatively
projected to be cost-effective because of
other savings. To evaluate the argument it must be determined whether
these savings will compensate for the
increased cost. Thus, study of the expected reduction in the need for
further hospital stays is needed, and
choice C is the best answer.
The argument requires no study of the ratio between surgery and
recovery time, so choice A is inappropriate.
Past and future changes in cost are irrelevant to evaluating an
argument that is based on the currently projected
cost, so choices B and E are inappropriate. Finally, since studying
the care with which the custom replacements
are made does not itself provide information about costs, choice D is
also incorrect.
57.
Choice A, the best answer, asserts that some environmental
disturbances can be so widespread as to cause the
extinction of numerous species. This fact helps to explain why the
fossil record frequently shows many species
becoming extinct at the same time, despite the variety of factors that
can cause a species to become extinct.
None of the other choices explain how numerous extinctions could have
occurred simultaneously in the past.
Choice B explains why sometimes only a very limited range of species
become extinct. Choice C explains how
some individual species become extinct. Choice D explains why the
modern period is unlike the period of the
fossil record, and choice E states which species are least likely to
become extinct.
58.
The passage states that a country capable of competing in the
international marketplace must balance trade
while its standard country's ability to compete in the international
marketplace will establish that both of these
conditions are met simultaneously. Since neither choice B, nor choice
C, nor choice D, nor choice E describes
tests that incorporate both of these criteria, these answers are
inappropriate. Choice A, which describes a test
that does, is the best answer.
59.
The medication to be developed is intended to prevent asthma attacks
by suppressing the natural action of
certain molecules in the lungs. Choice D asserts that this suppression
would occur not only when the molecules'
action is superfluous, but also when it is necessary. This would be a
serious flaw in the medication, so D is the
best answer.
Choices A and B refer to a lack of knowledge about how the messenger
molecules are produced or activated,
but not about how they act in the lungs. Choice C describes how long
the development might takes, but does not
rule out the possibility of success. Choice E asserts merely that the
medication would be unable to do something
it was not intended to do.
60.
If livestock are routinely fed antibiotics, as choice A states, meat
from livestock is likely to contain the resistant
bacteria, since any routine of antibiotics can result in resistant
bacteria. Thus, choice A is the best answer.
How cases of food poisoning are treated (choice B) fails to indicate
whether the infecting bacteria are resistant
bacteria. Choice C suggests that meat consumption is not the primary
culprit for the high incidence of resistant
bacteria. Choice D tends to support the competing hypothesis that
prescription antibiotics are responsible.
Choice E asserts that livestock farmers claim that the hypothesis is
false, but it provides no basis for evaluating
the truth of the claim
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